Berlin weekend

On the train ride home from Berlin, Ken and I were sitting in the dining cart having dinner.  We were on one end of the cart when 4 people entered the cart from the opposite end and start walking towards us.  They didn't stop at any of the tables...until they got to ours.  Then they asked for my identification.  4 of them, all large. 2 guys in military outfits looked at my passport, while the 2 police officers stood by watching my every movement, standing at attention with their hands crossed behind their backs.  They saw me scan the rest of the dining car to notice all of the other passengers staring at me.  This lasted for a few minutes, while I tried not to stress about it, Ken and I continuing our conversation as if it was no big deal.  The men were looking at every page of my passport, and the first guy called someone on his radio.  They didn't ask Ken, but Ken still offered "My passport is in my bag in our compartment".  The guy barely looked up and asked "what's your nationality?" Ken responded "American", and the guy didn't care any further. But my passport is also American and for some reason they cared about me.  They didn't check anyone else in the entire car, leaving the car after they were finished with me.  And I still have no idea why.  All I know is that I had to change my pants afterwards.  

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Imagine you live in the Western side of Berlin in 1961, but decide to go check out East Berlin on the night of August 12.  The Western part of the city is split into 3 sections, governed by the US, UK and France.  The Eastern side is Soviet, and you've always wanted to see what those Communists do for fun.  So you head over there to have a few drinks, or at least go to a "milk bar".  Maybe you stay out too late, fall asleep on the sidewalk (or somewhere else, if you're lucky), and wake up late for work.  As you head back home, you notice something is wrong.  Surely there must be some mistake.  Because on the road you took to get to where you are, there's now a big wall in your way.  With armed guards.  And they won't let you through.  You worry that it might take a couple hours before they let you pass, but that's because you don't realize that you're stuck in East Berlin.  Forever.

Ken got trapped on the wrong side of the wall - I had to leave him there

Ok, so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but that's really how it happened.  The wall went up overnight, to "protect the citizens of East Berlin from Fascism" is how the Soviets spun it.  But the real reason is that millions of East Berliners were heading to West Berlin to get out of the Communist system.  And the Soviets wasn't having it.  So if you woke up on the East side on the morning of August 13, 1961.  That's where you were staying.

Berlin Wall - I assume that hole wasn't there before

The wall was pretty thin. There were actually 2 parallel walls, with a "deadzone" in between, where people got shot if they tried to cross

This is how you jump over the wall

One thing I never realized is that the Berlin Wall encompassed the entire area of West Berlin (a big circle).  West Berlin, although entirely physically located in East Germany (which was under Soviet control after WWII), was considered part of West Germany (controlled by the allies) - something like a little satellite office.  The allies didn't want the Soviets to control the entire Capital when they split the country, so they insisted on sharing Berlin (thus West and East Berlin).  Since East Germany (and East Berlin) was on lock-down by the Soviets, the only way anyone in East Germany was allowed to go to West Germany (or the rest of the world) was to get into West Berlin and leave from there.  Once the wall went up separating West and East Berlin, you couldn't do it anymore, until the wall came down in 1989.

Ken is an American friend of mine in Warsaw, from Brooklyn. His mom actually lives just a couple blocks from where I lived in Park Slope for a year.  We didn't know each other in NYC, but we definitely ate at the same pizza place and Italian ice stand, and enjoyed bocce ball at Union Hall.  We decided on a last minute trip to Berlin, because we always talked about doing some weekend trips, and it was a 3 day weekend in Poland.  The train ride is 5-6 hours ans is about 50 Euros each way. Ken had been there before, but was happy to go again.  We stayed in a place called H2 hotel, a good location next to Alexanderplatz, with easy access to public transportation and walking distance to some nice neighborhoods.

Bunk beds, like the summer camp days

Most of Berlin was destroyed during WWII with all the bombings, and there is so much WWII history there.  Because of this, there are many museums and monuments to show what happened.  What impressed me is that Germany doesn't hide the horrible things that the Nazis did.  They acknowledge it, are sorry for (and embarrassed by) it, and want to show everyone what happened so it doesn't happen again.  When is the last time the US made museums to show everyone all the horrible things Americans have done?  Oh, that's right.  We haven't done any horrible things.

On the first day, we did a FREE (plus tips) guided tour around the city.  A couchsurfing contact gave us the idea.  It lasted almost 4 hours and it was really informative and entertaining.  The guide was English (so some of his jokes left me scratching my head) but he was really great.  The group was 40 people, but it was manageable.  We stopped along the Holocaust memorial, walked around the city, saw parts of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (where people went in and out of West Berlin), and even stood above the bunker where Hitler got married just before he and his wife committed suicide.  The guide also pointed out some propaganda, like art in the city, as well as how they built door handles really high on doors to show that the Aryan race was tall and strong, and made windows on the top floors of buildings smaller so when you looked up at them, the aspect made the building seem taller.  Those tricky Nazis.

Look how much fun it was to live in a Communist society!

Holocaust memorial

Checkpoint Charlie

He also pointed out where David Hasselhoff performed his hit song in 1989 "Looking for Freedom" and where Michael Jackson held a baby dangling over a balcony ledge.

A lot of the museums are free in Berlin, like the Holocaust, Topography of Terror, and Stasi museums, and all were very worthwhile.  It's interesting how real and transparent these museums are.  Showing death and tragedy, and who was responsible, are no problem for them.  We almost become numb to it.  The thing that stuck with me the most was a video in the Topography of Terror of the executions of some Jewish men standing in a ditch (which they probably dug).  You actually see the Nazis shooting them in the head, they fall into the ditch, and are buried by the soldiers.  So shocking and real, that it almost doesn't seem real at all.  The saddest thing is that with all the millions of deaths, the people become numbers, and you forget they were people.  There's a saying that "1 person dies and it's a tragedy.  1 million people die and it's a statistic."  The Holocaust museum does a nice job of reminding us that they were all real people with stories to tell.

Ken was very entertaining during the trip, from wanting to chat to girls, to giving very loud commentary on everything we saw, to speaking Polish when people didn't speak English (which didn't work either, surprisingly).  My favorite was when we were at a bar, I was sitting at the bar and Ken was on the couch next to some German girls.  He yelled across the bar "Tristan are you coming over here?" and I said "Not now, but you're making friends, right?". Then one of the girls looks up from her magazine and says "No he's not!!".  Before that, Ken didn't know if they spoke English or not.  But apparently they do!

On Friday night we spent a lot of time looking for a restaurant Ken remembered from his last trip, Pan Asia.  He didn't know the name of it, but remembered how it looked and the general location. He asked everyone on the street about it: "I was here 3 years ago and there was an Asian restaurant, it's big, and has long tables...do you know it?".  Surprisingly (not!), nobody knew what he was talking about.  But they were all very friendly in trying to help.  Even the older people were able to speak perfect English to us to try to help.  I don't know he did it, but eventually we found it (mostly just by stumbling across it).  But his description about it was exactly right!  It was near Hackescher Markt, which was a nice area to walk around and find food.

Fun little crosswalk man guided us around the city

We met a couple of Ken's friends for an Austrian dinner one night, then went to some bars in the Kreuzberg area.  There were tons of bars and restaurants, nice streets to walk around...a very nice area.  Another night we went to Friedrichshain, which also had a lot of bars and restaurants, warehouse clubs, girls with fancy scarves and nose rings mixed with preppy people...kinda like the Lower East Side in NYC.  Anyway, both areas were a lot of fun.

Other observations:
- Berlin is a very artsy, diverse, clean, trendy city with many nice "date-worthy" restaurants and bars, all different ethnicities (a lot of Turkish), and there is graffiti EVERYWHERE.  It adds to the character of the city, but I wonder why the city allows it.  I mean, it's everywhere!

Graffiti in an alley

Graffiti next to some bars

- All the taxis are Mercedes.  Just like we have Chevy and Ford taxis in the US.  I prefer Mercedes.
- Currywurst is the most Berlin-ish type of food...grilled sausage with curry powder and ketchup, and it was very tasty. And since there are a lot of Turkish people, the Turkish food is also very nice.

Currywurst - the curry was not the wurst part of this meal - the wurst is that it ended so soon

- You can drink on the streets (and basically everywhere).  Kids walk around with beer and wine...hang out drinking in bank lobbies at midnight, and tons of people are still coming off the metro at 3am with bottles in hand heading for the bars.

Overall, a great weekend, and since it's so close and there is so much to see, hopefully there will be another one before I leave Poland.  Next trip, Riga trip for 10 in 2 weeks!